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Italy a new hotspot for biogas upgrading?

The Italian decree from 2013 regarding biomethane regulations will be replaced by a new one in early 2017. The new decree will favour biomethane as transport fuel.

Italy is the most advanced European country when it comes to nr of filling stations and use of methane (natural gas) as vehicle fuel. Having the infrastructure in place and a public awareness of using methane as vehicle fuel Italy has already overcome the two main barriers for large scale implementation of biomethane as vehicle fuel.

The NGV fleet and number of filling stations continues to grow. 885,000 NGVs in 2014 compared to 970,000 NGVs in 2015. 1,100 CNG and L-CNG/LNG stations in 2015 compared to 990 in 2014. Almost 75% of the European NGV fleet is in Italy.

Since 2016, owners of passenger cars and light commercial vehicles in Italy are being encouraged to convert their vehicles to CNG as part of a new round of incentives made available by Italy’s Ministry of Environment. This scheme offers EUR 1.8 million to support alternative fuels.

Italy remains dedicated to the development of NGVs and encourages other countries to follow the leading example of the Italian industry and government.

Italy has 1,391 biogas plants and as the feed-in tariff for green electricity is phased out it’s natural to look for biomethane dedicated to the transportation sector as an alternative. This implies a huge opportunity for biogas upgrading companies.

It’s not a coincidence that we chose Italy as the location for 4thInternational conference on Renewable Energy Gas Technology, REGATEC 2017. The conference revolves around renewable methane of vehicle fuel quality produced through anaerobic digestion/upgrading, biomass gasification/methanation and Power-to-gas. For more info www.regatec.org